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As they huddled in the hanger, waiting for the quinjet and making battle plans, Steve noticed that Bucky seemed increasingly confused. "Something bothering you, Buck?"
"The plans for Stark… you haven't said anything about his Switch."
Clint laughed a little meanly, but his response was roughly what Steve was thinking. "Don't think we need any special plans if he goes kitty-cat on us."
Bucky was less confused, but more concerned. "So you don't know his Switch?"
"Clint just said it was a cat." Wanda was clearly annoyed. "A little black and white housecat pretending at innocence like Stark always does. Even my doe can step on him if needed."
Wanda probably hadn't seen some of the videos Stark had on the internet if she thought he was pretending innocence but that was just as well - she was a good kid and didn't need her own innocence any further ruined. "Yeah, Tony's Switch isn't a combat concern, Buck."
"I, uh, I meant his natural Switch. It wasn't in his Hydra file, but I thought you'd know."
Natural Switch? Steve was going to gently suggest that Bucky was confused when the ant guy spoke up excitedly.
"Oh, yeah, Switches are never fully domesticated animals like cats or dogs or, I dunno, horses, unless they're trained, and it's really hard to train a replacement Switch. I remember Luis was telling me about his cousin who they thought was a housecat Switch and everyone was freaked out until they figured out it was a Black Footed Cat instead."
Steve blinked, "Why would you train a replacement Switch, that's just unnatural."
"Usually if your natural one is aquatic," Clint put in. "Or some other way it would be unsafe if there was a forced Switch. The few Legendaries SHIELD found also tended to have trained Switches to hide themselves. Stark's undoubtedly the first category, or course. With his ego, if he was a Legendary, the whole planet would know it."
The others laughed or nodded along, but Bucky looked troubled. "Hydra didn't agree. Before the armor, his physical threat level was listed just as 'unknown' with a note that he was suspected to have an extreme resistance to toxins. It made planning an abduction practically impossible."
Clint seemed ready to pursue the topic further, but Steve didn't want to waste more time on theorizing. "Well, his armor is all he's ever used, even against Loki or Ultron, so even if he has a…" He couldn't bring himself to talk the arrogant billionaire up by implying the possibility of a Legendary. "A powerful natural Switch, it's not better than Iron Man. So we should be fine planning for that."
Bucky nodded, somewhat unwillingly, and they continued.
Steve battered the Iron Man helmet, his thoughts little but a wash of rage. Stark had hurt Bucky, destroyed his arm, left him huddled in pain and shock. When his enemy was on the ground, he lifted up to put all his power behind one finishing blow. Stark had never been anything without the suit, so he would destroy it entirely.
Just as the Shield smashed down, Stark's face vanished. Steve just sat there a moment on the suit, stunned, then ripped his weapon free. A skitter of movement through the rent in the armor shook him out of his daze and he realized the other man must have Switched instinctively.
Then what he had seen caught up with him, and he threw himself free in shock. His shield had gone all the way through the arc reactor to the point that he was seeing movement from inside the armor! What would that have done to a body snuggly fit inside?
"Tony? It's, uh, it's okay Tony." God, even if Stark should have listened and not attacked, Steve didn't want to kill him, just stop him. "I'm not gonna try to hurt you, I just needed to stop you from hurting Bucky. Just, uh, just stay in one of the legs to stay warm until your people get here."
A distinct hiss came from within the suit and Steve huffed in annoyance. Stark undoubtedly blamed him for what he was forced to do, as usual.
More movement in the suit, heading towards the neck instead of the leg and a lot of hissing. Steve sighed, unhappy that he was expected to talk Tony down from something he had nothing to do with. The fact that the hissing sounded strange and distorted didn't help.
"Tony don't come out, it's too cold out here and it's not like you can hurt me with your-" He fell backwards, gagging, as a smell from inside the suit suddenly hit him, stinging his eyes worse than even tear gas. "What the…"
For one brief moment, he wondered if being a skunk was embarrassing enough for Stark to learn a different Shift, but he knew that wouldn't effect him like this. Then something emerged from the shattered remains of the Iron Man helmet. It was facing away at first and looked like a lizard with a collection of white spikes on its head, but as it twisted he could see a snake like mouth. The body that followed was wet looking, and Steve started backing up in horror as he realized that the metal of the suit was cracking further and warping where it touched.
"Bucky!" He coughed, feeling like he'd breathed in fire. "Buck, we have to get out of here!" Some small part of him wanted to attack the creature, but he knew instinctively that death wouldn't decrease the toxic miasma it was spreading through the area.
He grabbed Bucky and hauled him to his feet, but before he could turn them towards the exit, a terrifyingly loud hiss forced his attention back to the snake thing.
It was fully clear of the armor now, and seemed to stand upright while somehow moving forward without a snake's usual twisting. It opened its eyes wide and gave another hiss, and that was all Steve knew except darkness and pain.
"And you wish me to merely leave them there?" T'Challa glared at the Iron Man pilot as he calmly inventoried the stolen quinjet for food and clothes.
"I'm warning you of the possible consequences of entering that base in the next 24 hours just as I have the Russians and Accords Panel." Even injured and unarmored, Stark seemed entirely casual, though that probably had a lot to do with the shift form he said had incapacitated two super soldiers. "It is coated with a substance that was starting to pit Roger's shield when I left and has fumes that will destroy any breathing filter and kill most people instantly. There's a reason I don't Switch in combat. I probably would have tried to stop it if I knew there was anyone but the three of us and Zemo for a hundred miles."
"So you will leave them to suffer."
The American rolled his eyes in annoyance. "There is nothing that can be done for them. I'm not a giant poison dart frog or something, Pink Panther, I am a Legendary! But it's not one of the fluffy rainbow unicorn legends, or even the dramatic ones where the hero fights the dragon. I'm the legend of ultimate poison, the creature that can kill you with a look and leaves a trail of dead vegetation and cracked stones." He drew a deep breath and shook his head.
"And! Considering it was a survival Switch to stop my chest being caved in and Rogers had every intention of leaving me there in a dead suit, you can stop trying to appeal to my better nature!" His eyes were flat and T'Challa considered the psychological spill over from a long repressed Switch. Especially to a form with no instincts towards a clean kill.
"They'll either survive until the toxin dissipates and be arrested or they won't. You won't get pushback from me if you want to champion Poor Brainwashed Barnes now that none of his kills are personal to you, but other than stopping Thunderbolt in any more power grabs, I'll be focusing on my real teammates." He shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Contact me in a couple of days when I'm feeling less… reptilian, but for now don't ask for any help for those that hurt me and mine."
He turned away, and T'Challa accepted the dismissal. Apathy truly was the closest a basilisk had to mercy.